Travel Agent chatted with Mandy Chomat, vice president of sales and marketing for Karisma Resorts, Tuesday afternoon and learned that Karisma’s Azul properties are all booked solid for the holidays, while the company’s El Dorado branded resorts are pacing at a roughly 80-85-percent occupancy.
“Mexico has really come back a lot this year,” says Chomat. “We still have a ways to go but at least we are doing way better than we were three years ago.”
Chomat says the negative perception of Mexico being an unsafe destination has tapered off a bit as clients - and even some agents – became a bit more geographically savvy with regards to Mexico in the last few years.
“They know the Riviera Maya is safe and has always been safe,” Chomat says of the guests who book his hotels. “This has always been an incredibly successful destination in Mexico for both couples and families.”
Specifically, the weddings and honeymoons market has kept hotel business in Mexico afloat while the other niches – such as gourmet and spa travel – slowly regained strength.
“The weddings and honeymoons market has been our backbone during these hard times,” says Chomat, “but we also have to give a lot of credit to specialists, the agents who continue to promote and sell all of the new tools we recently launched.”
Speaking of giving agents accolades, Karisma recently wrapped up its fourth annual Gourmet Inclusive Vacation Consultant (GIVC) Awards and Sales & Marketing Forum from November 16-19 at El Dorado Royale and El Dorado Casitas Royale by Karisma.
Chomat says roughly 175 agents attended the event, which was geared toward rewarding Karisma travel specialists who best served the brand during the last year.
Among the list of winners from that night was Beach Bum Vacation, which took home the night’s top honor for the year’s “Hall of Famer,” which goes to the company who not only boasts a healthy Karisma sales volume, but also shows initiative by using and promoting many of the company’s new tools and programs.
“We don’t go by just sales volume, but rather the company who really shows an aggressive approach in pushing our products and Beach Bum Vacation has done just that.”
Visit www.karismahotels.com